Hannibal Lecter was never meant to captivate anyone’s attention. Introduced in Thomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon, he was part psychopath, part cannibal, and part FBI informant. Hannibal Lecter” align=”left” border=”0″ hspace=”10″ />With the exception of the much later penned novel Hannibal, which was adapted to film in 2001, he is never the villain of the story. In the most famous entry in the series, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal helps the heroine catch an even more vicious killer: Buffalo Bill.Thanks in part to Anthony Hopkins’ enthralling performance, Hannibal Lecter has become a household name. Though Ted Levine’s Buffalo Bill was frightening and demented, Hannibal’s politeness and intelligence made him a curious spectacle. It’s hard to imagine him killing and dismembering his victims, much less eating them.

Hannibal represents the two divergent pieces of human nature. His primal viciousness and his absurd politeness somehow walk hand in hand, as he insists on only killing the rude or the vulgar. He has respect for people like Clarice, the protagonist of The Silence of the Lambs - in the novel Hannibal, he even falls in love with her.

In the latest installment in both the novel and film series, Hannibal Rising, we learn more of Hannibal’s childhood. He was inspired to cannibalism when starving soldiers ate his baby sister; a common artistic license when dealing with psychopaths, who are not typically driven by any particular trauma.

From Manhunter and Red Dragon to The Silence of the Lambs to Hannibal to Hannibal Rising, the world’s most refined cannibal will never be forgotten. Remember his works by playing some Hannibal Lecter movie trivia.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Categories: Movie stories //